One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Cult-TV Movie Review: The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975)

Lizzie Borden took an axe. She gave her mother
forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.”

-- Old jump rope song.

“The story you are about to see is based
largely on fact. It is considered one of the most infamous and bizarre murder
cases of the past century.”

--Title card, The Legend of Lizzie Borden
(1975)

In Fall River, Massachusetts in August of 1892,
a shocking murder occurs. The prime suspect is demure Sunday school teacher,
Lizzie Borden (Elizabeth Montgomery) adult daughter of one victim, Andrew
Borden (Fritz Weaver) and step-daughter of the other victim, Abby Borden (Helen
Craig).

On initial interrogation at an inquest, Lizzie
is unable to adequately explain the events of the day of the murder, and is held for
trial.

While in prison, however, Lizzie -- the
so-called “sphinx of coldness” -- opens
up emotionally to a reporter, and, thanks to the ensuing newspaper article,
becomes a beloved celebrity. Some readers feel that she is an innocent woman, held
wrongly, and the subject of a witch-hunt.

Others believe that Lizzie is a cold-blooded
murderer.

Throughout the trial, Lizzie listens to and
watches testimony about the crime, including that of expert witnesses, and the
family maid, Bridget (Fionnula Flanagan). The prosecutor (Ed Flanders) is determined to
see justice done, but after all the evidence is presented, Lizzie is found not
guilty of the terrible crime.

“You’re special, and special people have always
been misunderstood.”

The Legend of Lizzie Borden,
based on a “true crime” story, is one of the most memorable TV-movies of the
1970s, for a few reasons.

First and foremost, the telefilm involves an
endlessly fascinating subject: an unresolved murder case that became a national
sensation. As recently as 2014, Lizzie Borden’s story was retold for modern
audiences (Lizzie Borden Took an Ax).

And secondly, the film is buttressed by the
surprising -- yet thoroughly committed -- central performance by Bewitched
(1964-1972) star Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995) as the possible
killer with ice water in her veins.

Montgomery doesn’t showboat or over-act here,
and there’s no trace at all of her Samantha Stephens persona. Instead, Montgomery makes the most of a kind of inscrutable stone face -- and her penetrating eyes -- to leave audiences guessing about the truth.

Today, the telefilm might be judged an artistic
success, as well, because of the ambiguous approach it adopts throughout.

In not one of these sections is the absolute
truth ascertained, or revealed.

Early on, motives for the crimes are suggested.
Was bad mutton broth the cause of some temporary insanity that affected the family, and especially Lizzie? It's one possibility.

Some flashbacks also
suggest an inappropriate relationship between Mr. Borden and Lizzie. Was he abusive to her, and was his brutal behavior the cause of Lizzie's retaliation?

And then, of course, there are other incidents
brought up at trial, like the occasion in which Mr. Borden brutally murdered Lizzie’s
pigeons. Also worthy of consideration is the fact that Lizzie’s stepmother, Abby, was, apparently, conniving to
have Lizzie and her sister, Emma (Katherine Helmond) removed from their father’s
will, essentially disinherited.

So far as Lizzie Borden’s guilt is concerned,
in the telefilm provides no easy answer. And as she listens to and watches the
witnesses in the court room, the film cuts to explicit imagery of how Lizzie could have committed the
murders, and yet still had no blood stains on her clothes at the end of the day.

Specifically, we see Lizzie stripping down
nude, and committing bloody murder…twice. The criminal acts are filmed from
cockeyed, exaggerated angles, which suggests how completely outside the norm they would be
for someone in Lizzie’s shoes. Also, it's worth noting that the corpses in the film are posed in positions very accurate to crime scene photographs of the murders.

The question of ambiguity comes into play,
however, more deeply in consideration of these "flashback" or "re-enactment" moments. Are we seeing what Lizzie did? Or
are we seeing what Lizzie could have done, in the situation? Are we witness to her her memories, or her fantasies?

I make that last
point because it is noted in the film that Borden is “special,” and a “sphinx of
coldness,” quite different from those around her. Is it possible that she possessed a
dark side -- imagining such crimes -- but not a side so dark that she would
commit murder? The film’s approach
allows us to consider both possibilities fully.

If Lizzie Borden did not commit
these murders, then who did?

What The Legend of Lizzie Borden does not
do, one might note, is present any convincing alternate theory. Lizzie seems
the only logical suspect. I told my
ten-year old son the story of the trial, and he immediately suggested that the murderer was Emma,
Lizzie’s sister, who established an alibi of being out of town, in both the
historical case and the film. Perhaps Lizzie was protecting her? After all, Emma would have possessed at least one
of the same motivations to kill as Lizzie did.

Of course, it’s all guess work.

You can take a
stab at puzzling it all out, but we are left, finally, with an acquittal and
lots of questions. What the telefilm captures quite beautifully, I think, is
the fickle nature of those “devouring” the Borden case as daily news, or recurring, soap opera gossip. One
day Lizzie would be a cold-hearted villain hated by all. The next day she was a saint, and a
national treasure.

Clearly, one of those assessments was wrong.

But which one?

You’ll get no answer from The Legend of Lizzie Borden,
and that’s what makes this telefilm immortal. Lizzie could be America’s first
celebrity sociopath, or simply a very private person caught up in a mess. Perhaps she was merely more assertive in her beliefs (and her defense of her prerogatives) than other women typically were at the time. But that doesn't make her a murderer. It makes her...ahead of her time.

Montgomery’s performance walks a perfect line
of strangeness in the telefilm, so that we can’t judge if Lizzie is simply weird for the
time period (standing up for herself when wronged…an early feminist, perhaps), or
strange in a way that made her dangerous and monstrous.

I'll be honest: before watching this TV-movie (for the first
time in decades…) I had always blindly assumed Lizzie Borden’s guilt. The ubiquitous jump
rope song about her doesn’t make any bones about her culpability, after all, right?

But after seeing the film again in 2017, I can’t
help but second guess my first impulse. When Lizzie notes
at the end of the film that she is free, "finally, really free," is she speaking
of the end of the trial, or of the death of her parents? And even if she is
speaking of the latter subject, does that make her a killer, or someone who just
escaped an unpleasant home environment?

There is much to chew on here, in a 1970s TV-movie that actually lives up to the adjective “legendary.”

No comments:

Post a Comment

About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

Follow by Email

What the Critics Say...

"...some of the best writing about the genre has been done by John Kenneth Muir. I am particularly grateful to him for the time and attention he's paid to things others have overlooked, under-appreciated and often written off. His is a fan's perspective first, but with a critic's eye to theme and underscore, to influence and pastiche..." - Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, in the foreword to Horror Films FAQ (October 2013).

"Hands down, John Kenneth Muir is one of the finest critics and writers working today. His deep analysis of contemporary American culture is always illuminating and insightful. John's film writing and criticism is outstanding and a great place to start for any budding writer, but one should also examine his work on comic books, TV, and music. His weighty catalog of books and essays combined with his significant blog production places him at the top of pop culture writers. Johns work is essential in understanding the centrality of culture in modern society." - Professor Bob Batchelor, cultural historian and Executive Director of the James Pedas Communication Center at Thiel College (2014).

"...an independent film scholar, [Muir] explains film studies concepts in a language that is reader-friendly and engaging..." (The Hindu, 2007)"...Muir's genius lies in his giving context to the films..." (Choice, 2007)